Blackout Articles

One of the strongest and loudest protesters of the Stop Online Piracy Act and the PIPA Act has been Wikipedia. In an attempt to further demonstrate their disdain for these online piracy acts Wikipedia is staging a new protest: an online blackout.

The Wikipedia blackout will be in effect on Wednesday the 18th and will last all day. The blackout will be on the English version of Wikipedia however Wikipedia states that the other languages will also put up protest banners and may follow suit in order to further spread the word about SOPA and PIPA.

Wikipedia’s co-founder Jimmy Wales Tweeted the other day that the “emerging consensus of the community seems to be for a global blackout of English Wikipedia”. Wikipedia had apparently considered a softer approach to the blackout but apparently a full blackout was decided on.

For those who don’t know why Wikipedia is protesting SOPA and PIPA you can read more here however a short overview is that SOPA and PIPA take drastic and unnecessary measures in an attempt to stomp out online piracy.